Report on the Mental Health of Indian Muslims

December 2022
 BEBAAK
COLLECTIVE

Bebaak Collective (‘Voices of the Fearless’) List of Figures 4

was founded in 2013 as an informal association
of grassroots activists to advocate for the rights
of Muslim women and community. It is a platform Foreword 5
for engaging with feminist thought and practice,
human rights issues, and the anti-discrimination
struggle. It has been working in Uttar Pradesh,
Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan. With the
1 Introduction
rising onslaught against marginalised communities, 1.1 Political isolation of Indian Muslims: Violence of the law 7
the Collective has evolved into an advocacy group 1.2 The Unfolding of Genocide: Everyday humiliation and dehumanisation 8
that strongly adheres to constitutional values and
believes that the rights and principles enshrined in 1.3 Studying mental health or the changed psycho-social life of Muslims 9
our constitution are inalienable from every Indian
citizen, irrespective of their caste, gender, sexuality
or religion. 2 Methodology 11

Acknowledgements
This report is an outcome of the collective efforts
3 Findings
3.1 Institutional Betrayal 12
of its authors, editors, and participants. We are
grateful to all the participants for sharing their 3.2 Financial Worry and setback to social mobility 15
valuable time and experiences with us. We extend
our gratitude to all those who took the time to 3.3 The physical toll of loss and death 18
read this report and offered their comments and 3.4 Fear and Hypervigilance 20
suggestions. We thank Roohi Afreen, Saba Khan,
and Mubashira Khan who helped us in conducting 3.5 Losing community, neighbours and friends 23
interviews in Assam, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar
Pradesh respectively. We also thank Sakina and 3.6 Hope for a political future 25
Yojana who helped with the transcription.

4 Conclusion 28

Research and writing Contact

5 Recommendations 29

• Hasina Khan, Sudeeti G.M, Umara Zainab

bebaakcollective@gmail.com Endnotes 30
Review and Editing
• Geeta Thatra, KP/ Ketki Ranade, Lamiya
Parveen, Zehra Mehdi

Cover Design and Layout

• Raghav Malhotra

2 3
 1. Figure 1: A house being demolished in
Khargone, Madhya Pradesh, in the aftermath
of Ram Navami violence in April 2022
2. Figure 2: The wall in Bilal’s room is covered
with the details of his brother’s case, April 2022
3. Figure 3: House demolished by bulldozers in
Khamaria, Madhya Pradesh, April 2022
4. Figure 4: The rebuilt houses of Dhalpur, Village
1, Assam
5. Figure 5: Muslim students in Karnataka
denied entry into IDSG Government
College, Chikmanglur due to the institution’s
discriminatory policies towards hijab wearing
students
6. Figure 6: Relatives of a victim of Delhi pogrom
in mourning
7. Figure 7: Police attacked civilians during
the anti-CAA-NPR-NRC protests in Kanpur,
December 2020
8. Figure 8: Residents of Jahangirpura, a Muslim
dominated neighbourhood, which faced
demolition drives after Ram Navami violence
in April 2022
9. Figure 9: Jamia students at the helm of anti-
CAA-NPR-NRC protests held in December
2019
10. Figure 10: The sit-in at Shaheen Bagh, Delhi,
January 2020
4 5
Mental health and its socio-political determinants
are beginning to emerge from a shroud of silence
page 12 and stigma into public discourse. There are several
possible reasons for this, the most visible being the
pandemic and the many narratives of suffering it
page 12 brought to the fore from among the most vulnerable
sections of society. Even before the pandemic, the
relationship between social disadvantage and the
page 13
mental health of certain communities and groups
page 16 (some more than others) has been studied in the
Indian context. Some examples of these include
the mental health of women, homeless persons,
Dalit, Bahujan, and Adivasi communities, and
queer and trans persons. However, the mental
health of Indian Muslims has been severely
underrepresented and almost invisible within the
page 18 mental health or development literature in India.
In a recent, first of its kind, study providing
page 19
population-level evidence on caste, religion, and
mental health in India, Gupta and Coffey report that
Scheduled Castes and Muslims have worse self-
page 20 reported mental health than higher caste Hindus
and that Muslims are substantially more likely
to report sadness and anxiety as compared to
upper-caste Hindus, even after controlling for age,
education, assets, expenditure, state of residence,
page 23 and rural residence.1 Another study seeking to
understand the impact of communal violence on
mental health has indicated a higher prevalence
of mental disorders among Muslims in the post-riot
page 26 context.2 Similarly, studies from the Kashmir Valley
point to high rates of mental disorders, including
page 27 depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress
disorder, among Muslims in the context of chronic
political conflict and exposure to multiple traumas.3
All of these, while drawing much-needed attention
to the mental health concerns faced by Indian
Muslims, do so by using clinical parameters of
mental illness and its magnitude. This is not to
undermine the value of these research studies, as
they make a compelling argument that links mental
illnesses and suffering to socio-political and cultural
contexts of violence, brutality, discrimination, and
marginality. While appreciating the significance of
this literature, I wish to draw the attention of the
readers to other critical frames that have sought
to centre the lived experiences of marginalised
communities to create newer, situated knowledge
frames that lend voice to their experiences. This
report, to my mind, is the beginning of such an effort
in the Indian context in redefining the meanings
of mental health, selfhood, resilience, and
survival among Muslims in India. It has not been
authored by mental health professionals or “psy
experts,” but by a collective of grassroots activists
advocating for the rights of Muslim women and the
community. The strength of the report lies in the
close relationship between the activists-authors of
this report and the lives they seek to represent.
Dr. Samah Jabr, chair of the mental health unit
at the Palestinian Ministry of Health, says the
following in the context of using available/western
categories of mental illness to describe the psychic
experiences of Palestinian people:
Clinical definitions of post-traumatic stress
disorder do not apply to the experiences of
Palestinians. PTSD better describes the
experiences of an American soldier who goes
to Iraq to bomb and goes back to the safety
of the United States. He’s having nightmares
and fears related to the battlefield and his
fears are imaginary. Whereas for a Palestinian
in Gaza whose home was bombarded, the
threat of having another bombardment is a
very real one. It’s not imaginary. There is no
‘post’ because the trauma is repetitive and
ongoing and continuous.4
Dr. Jabr adds, “I think we need to be authentic
about our experiences and not to try to impose
on ourselves experiences that are not ours.” The
present report too steers clear of diagnoses of

mental illnesses and seeks to articulate the impact
of communalism on the social fabric of Muslim
existence in India. In doing so, it uses frames such
as “social suffering,” which refers to the range
of devastating injuries, pain, and damage that
social, political, and institutional power inflict on
the human experience.5 Mental health is used in
this report to refer to everyday micro-actions such
as “the stiffening of backs in public places” or to
life-altering decisions such as choice of vocation,
access to education, and financial stability. It
includes affective experiences of fear, continued
isolation and hurt, remembering and forgetting,
and searching for hope and a political future.
While describing what constitutes good mental
health in the Palestinian context, Dr. Jabr says,
“… it is to be able to have critical thinking and
to maintain your capacity to empathise.” This
report, foregrounding the institutional betrayal and
state excesses against ordinary Muslim citizens,
activists, and journalists, asks us to think of what
good mental health would possibly look like
for religious minorities in India today. And what
conditions of living are essential to make this
possible?
KP/ Ketki Ranade,
Faculty, Center for Health and Mental Health,
Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai
6 7
1
1.1
Political Isolation of Indian
Muslims: Violence of the Law
The role of the law in systematically isolating
and alienating Indian Muslims can be seen in
its emboldening of both the Hindu majoritarian
imagination and its grassroot efforts. The liberal
idea that legislation provides and guarantees
rights, dignity, and equality of justice to individuals
has been emptied of its emancipatory potential
for Indian Muslims under the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) government.6 The everyday life of “law
and order” has assumed the “state of exception,”
leading to routine implementation of stringent
laws meant for situations that threaten public
order or national security.7 It has also included the
introduction of laws that sustain and reinforce the
idea that Muslims pose a national and existential
threat to the majoritarian conception of India as
a “Hindu” nation. The cumulative effect of the
“state of exception” is the gradual erosion of legal
and constitutionally guaranteed freedoms of life,
liberty, equality, and religion as well as an increase
in violence, at the hands of both legal and extra-
legal actors, towards Muslims.
The National Crime Records Bureau data for 2019
shows an increase in the application (as compared
to its use in 2016) of the Unlawful Activities
(Prevention) Act (UAPA).8 This law, under its
broad definition of unlawful or terrorist activity,
is infamous for its use in targeting dissidents,
allowing prolonged detentions without a trial, and
precluding the possibility of bail as the charges
of guilt are accepted on a prima facie basis. The
arrest of activists involved in the anti-CAA-NPR-
NRC movement under the UAPA is one example
of the blatant and indiscriminate use of the law, as
thirteen out of the eighteen accused are still in jail,
without the likelihood of bail or the commencement
of a fair trial. Muslim journalists involved in
exposing the role of the Modi government in
abetting violence againstMuslims have also come
under the scrutiny of the state.9
The increase in the number of anti-Muslim laws is
a testament to how precarious the constitutional
rights of Muslims are. For instance, the laws
aimed at cow protection and curtailing religious
conversion10 are dangerous in not only how they
seek to target Muslims (even when the major
exporters of beef continue to be Hindus), but
because of the process of prosecution put in place
by their stipulations. These laws are based on
reversal of the usual practice by shifting the burden
of proof from the state to the individual. Another
bill, premised on the anxieties of demographic
takeover by Muslims (or the myth “population
jihad”), proposes the prohibition of people with
more than two children from accessing government
jobs and welfare schemes in Uttar Pradesh.11
The Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (henceforth
CAA), along with the National Register of Citizens
(NRC), were the most explicit ways in which they
endangered the citizenship and legal rights of
Indian Muslims. The fear of “infiltration” by “illegal
migrants” (mostly seen as Bangladeshis) provided
the rationale for implementing the CAA-NPR-NRC,
which has the scope of large-scale exclusion and
disenfranchisement of Indian minorities. According
to Niraja Gopal Jayal, “infiltrator” has become a
metonym for the Muslim and feeds the xenophobia
that provides cover for the yearning to get rid of
even Indian Muslims.”12 The example of the Assam
NRC, a process supervised by the Supreme Court
to make people prove their citizenship, left out
1.9 million people from its final list.13 The history
of impunity for crimes against minorities under
Bharatiya Janata Party rule,14 seen in light of
the use of law-making to implement an all-India
NRC, pushed the possibility of detention camps
and losing one’s rights as a citizen towards its full
realisation.
 The majoritarian ideology is slowly materialised
through the instrumentalisation of law as well as
its “irregular” functioning. Mohsin Alam Bhat has
argued that this includes the routine violation of
existing laws, as seen in the violation of Municipal
Acts by the Delhi Municipal authorities to
undertake demolition drives in Jahangirpuri, and its
legitimation at the level of legal norms and popular
consent through Hindutva mobilisation. The result
of these processes is “subordinated citizenship”
for minority citizens, as they are “subjected to
grave and constant vulnerability of rights violations
without any meaningful recourse to institutional
checks and the rule of law.”15 Therefore, the
functioning of the law is central to the abetting and
normalisation of violence inflicted upon Muslims by
both the state and extra-legal actors.
1.2
The Unfolding of Genocide:
Everyday humiliation and
dehumanisation
Gregory Stanton, an expert on genocidal violence,
alerted us to the imminence of genocide against
Indian Muslims in January 2022.16 The alarm
was based on the reality of sustained, everyday
instances of communal violence in India. The
concept of “jihad” is reflective of the majoritarian
community’s sense of being beleaguered by the
supposed dominance and strength of Muslims.17 It
has been multiplied to create several situations of
crisis such as “Corona Jihad”, “Love Jihad”, “Flood
Jihad”, “Land Jihad” and “UPSC Jihad.” This
paranoia has been used to criminalise mundane
and routine activities undertaken by Muslims
8 9
such as offering namaz in public spaces, selling
meat and vegetables, taking government exams,
courting people outside their religion, and putting
up Whatsapp statuses congratulating the Pakistan
cricket team.18
Post-2014, the changes in the political architecture
of the country have also included the extension
of the right to exercise physical and symbolic
violence, supposed to be the monopoly of the
state, to militia groups and organisations. Taking
the case of violence against Muslims in the form
of cow vigilantism in Haryana, Christoffe Jaffrelot
has shown the collaboration between the local
police, politicians and gau rakshaks in running cow
protection militias as well as formal government
bodies.19
The increase in the number of vigilante groups,
forming the Sangh Parivar, such as Gau Raksha
Dal, Yuva Hindu Vahini and Hindu Sena has not
been without state support. These organisations
have been behind the spike in cases of individuals
being targeted on the basis of their religious
identity. The cases include not just overt harm to
person and property but also forms of humiliation
by forcing them to chant Jai Shri Ram (slogan
used by right-wing groups to proclaim the Hindu
character of the nation), removing garments of
religious significance, and impeding their access
to places of worship, employment and education.
This humiliation forms a part of “institutionalised
everyday communalism” 20— a concept that points
to how outbursts of violence in certain pockets and
regions as “riots” have been replaced by planned
and dispersed forms of vigilantism.
The architecture of anti-Muslim violence includes
social media with its calls for genocide against
Muslims through the taking up of arms,21 circulation
of videos, messages, and memes painting a
dehumanising image of Muslim men as excessively
virile and women as submissive,22
creation of apps auctioning off Muslim women,23
and incessant abuse targeted towards Muslim
journalists and activists.24 The offline manifestation
of such online hate campaigns was seen at the
time of Delhi pogrom in 2020. Whatsapp and
Facebook groups were instrumental in organising
and mobilsing anti-Muslim sentiment and directing
action by identifying and attacking Muslim
neighbourhoods, places of business and persons.
The role of mainstream news media in propagating
conspiracies about minorities due to the complex
workings of corporate sponsorship, television
rating points (TRP), and self-censorship in limiting
press freedom and ethical journalism also needs
to be noted. Taking the example of Aaj Tak and
India Today, Tazeen Junaid has shown that their
dominant representation of Muslims is through
negative stereotyping. Other strategies used by
mainstream media to demonise Muslims include
doctored images and videos and sensationalist
media trials. The idea that Muslims are behind the
conspiracies related to the spread of COVID-19, or
forced religious conversion, is widely disseminated
by news channels and accepted as fact by their
audiences. 25
The ubiquity of anti-Muslim messaging on social
and mainstream media, its repetition in political
speeches, its entrenchment within legislation,
and the absence of accountability structures
for perpetrators of anti-Muslim violence are
indicators of the systematic dehumanisation of
Indian Muslims. The totalising effect of these
developments is the creation of an environment
where Muslims are victimised through economic
boycotts, vigilante violence, destruction of
property, unfair arrests, and imprisonment. The
concerted efforts to create popular consent for the
multifaceted nature of Islamophobia and the fact
that it continues to spread due to social and state
sanction are recognised as a “process” where,
through small but consistent means, the modes of
survival of Indian Muslims are being broken down
as well as the moral and social consciousness of
the majority communities, which would allow the
formulation of empathy and solidarity with the
persecuted group.
1.3
Studying mental health
or the changed psycho-social
life of Muslims
Contemporary debates regarding the precarious
condition of Muslims in India have revealed the
impact of religious discrimination on the education
and livelihood of the community. For instance,
the targeting of women who wear hijab results
in the denial of education and employment,26 the
boycott of Muslim vendors contributes to systemic
marginalisation of the community, the housing
discrimination against Muslims leads to spatial
segregation,27 and the unequal treatment meted
out to Muslim gig-workers deepens inequality.28
Within these debates, the subject of mental health
has not yet found major grounding. The existing
scholarly literature on the relationship between
communalism and mental health has focused on
the diagnosis of mental illnesses such as PTSD
(post-traumatic stress disorder) through a study
of symptoms like sleeplessness, depression, and
the inability to focus among riot victims.29 Others
have looked at the responsibility of the health
care system in responding to the complexity of
social, psychological and physical problems faced
by sexual violence survivors of the 2002 Gujarat
pogrom.30

Recent studies have also challenged the dominant
methodology of identifying PTSD as the only mental
health problem associated with going through a
natural or social disaster. Instead, representation
of communal violence in documentaries such
as the Final Solution (2004) have provided key
insights into the ways in which survivors craft
narratives around their experience of suffering.
They have identified the kinds of problems faced
by the Gujarat pogrom victims: a feeling of being
overwhelmed by losses, relational disruptions,
forced identities, and the denial of justice and
equity. 31 There have also been attempts by writers
and journalists to document stories of distress
faced by Muslims, especially the Muslim youth, in
light of growing communalism in the country. 32
Taking from these recent attempts to narrativise the
experience of distress created by communalism,
this report seeks to problematise and broaden the
conversations around mental health. The discourse
on mental health has largely been dominated by
the privileged, with its emphasis on the individual
at the expense of excluding the effects of political
violence on members of a persecuted community.33
In an interview with Bebaak Collective, Shamima
Asghar,34 a mental health practitioner based in
Bangalore, argued that mental health in its clinical
practice can be extremely individualistic. She
pointed out that mental health practice, as a way
of dealing with trauma and suffering, does not
investigate the root of violence but instead aims to
mitigate its ill-effects on those impacted by it. It is
a way of saying that the violence you endure will
remain, you simply need to learn to live with it.
This report adopts the concept of “social suffering”
to bridge the gap between experiences of
communalism and mental health practice. Social
suffering refers to an “assemblage of human
problems that have their origins and consequences
in the devastating injuries that social force can
inflict on human experience.”35 This experience of
individuals refracted through social and political
10
realities is relevant to understand how
communalism makes “things not quite right.”
The report has, therefore, tried to understand the
prolonged effects of communalism in the form
of unease, distress and disruption in the lives of
victims of overt communal violence. The idea of
social suffering helps us to analyse both the extent
of injuries as well as the ways in which people
fight back and rebuild their lives. It collapses
the distinction between the individual and the
collective, physical and psychological, illness and
treatment in order to reveal that these human
relationships and experiences are socially and
politically mediated and constructed.
This report is, therefore, written with the aim of
showing how mental health can be an important
indicator for understanding social hatred and
state persecution faced by Indian Muslims. We
recognised after our interviews with the victims
of hate crimes and riots that mental health or
a discussion on people’s habits, feelings and
relationships, is a window into the reality of
how communalism has changed the everyday
life of Muslims. Mental health, therefore, is the
metric to understand the otherwise unspoken
effects of communalism: the stiffening of backs
in public places, continued isolation and hurt,
hypervigilance, and search for hope and a political
future.. Such an analysis requires us to move
beyond finding the remnants of a violent episode
through the diagnosis of mental disorders like
PTSD or depression. Our report has pushed us
to accept and articulate that the study of mental
health needs to begin with the understanding of
everyday life, in how our life and predominant
thoughts around our future, health and financial
stability are altered by the experience of violence.
Therefore, it is inextricably linked to the larger story
of communalism. It validates and confirms broader
patterns of persecution and exclusion of Muslims,
but also enables a closer look at how individual
Muslim lives have been affected.
2
We spoke to a wide range of people: Muslims from While we bring to you stories of loss and pain in
different classes and castes, with differing levels people’s own words, we struggle to communicate
of education, based in the states of Delhi, Uttar the tone of their voices, the look on their faces, and
Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Assam, the tears that flowed down when these experiences
and Gujarat. These interviews were conducted were shared. We have tried to remain faithful to the
over a period of six months, from February to July linguistic expressions of the people we spoke to;
2022. The factors that tie these people together are perhaps what is lost is the pathos and the sadness
their Muslim religious identity and their proximity in their voices, the grief they expressed to us when
to communal violence. We kept the circle wide they put off their Zoom video cameras in order to
and spoke to activists who have been imprisoned, cry without being observed.
friends of activists, families of men who have been
lynched, therapists who treat Muslim patients, This report is the culmination of longer work done
families of riot victims, and several family members by Bebaak Collective on the question of health
of imprisoned men, among others. and communalism. Previously, we had studied
the impact of communalisation of the COVID-19
Our research questions were geared towards pandemic on Indian Muslims, with a focus on how
understanding people’s feelings about their access to healthcare was blocked and disrupted
experiences of communalism. We asked people to by communal violence during the first lockdown.
recount their stories to us and tell us how they felt. Bebaak, for the last two years, in collaboration with
Many times, the people we spoke to were in the Mariwala Health Initiative, has been working with
midst of responding to an ongoing situation: one the Muslim community by providing them with a
person we spoke to was hiding from the police, space to talk about their personal experience with
another was processing the news of the arrest of anti-Muslim hatred, build community support, and
her friend’s father, and another was witnessing access mental health services as well.
arrests in her neighbourhood right after a
communal incident. Some reflected on the horrific
incidents that had taken place in the past with some
degree of distance from the shock of the moment.
In another sense, since our questions were fairly
open-ended, people spoke about the political
situation and shifted many lenses: at one moment,
they were analytical and practical, grappling with
how discrimination and violence against Muslims
have increased; at another moment, they were
in despair, sometimes with a view to the larger
situation, sometimes with reference to their own
inner turmoil. People spoke about past riots and
present demolitions, detailing the betrayals,
failures, and difficult moments in their lives. At the
very least, we hope that this report can contribute
to our understanding of the emotional lives of
Muslims in India today.
11
 3
3.1
Institutional Betrayal
“Mujhe raat mein neend nahi aati.
Court website hi dekhta rehta hoon
poori raat.
(I am not able to sleep at night. I just
keep on checking the court website).”
-Bilal, Delhi
Under the electoral and political system dominated
by the BJP, the application of the rule of law is
contingent upon one’s religion. This “irregular”
functioning of the law entails blocking access to
legal recourse and accountability, undermining the
democratic setup based on a system of checks
and balances.36 Muslims in India today are facing
an “institutional betrayal,” which is the erosion of
reason and expectation from the law i.e. the law
will work on universal morality and not on a skewed
understanding of “Muslim guilt” and “Savarna
innocence.”37 These processes run parallel to
the operation of “ethnicised patronage networks,”
which work as unofficial state structures to help
majority communities secure favours from the
government, police, and courts.38
Figure 1: A house being demolished in Khargone, Madhya
Pradesh in the aftermath of the Ram Navami violence in
April 2022. Source: Scroll.in
12
To be embroiled in an unfair legal system, trying to
prove one’s innocence, becomes an all-consuming
affair, requiring one’s constant attention and work.
This suffering became apparent when we spoke
to Bilal, a 21-year-old student from Northeast
Delhi, whose elder brother was arrested in a
fraudulent case after the February 2020 pogrom in
Delhi. According to the family, Bilal’s brother was
recording the rioters burning down his shop, which
was used by the police to implicate him in the
case. Consequently, he was arrested in 16 cases.
The youngest son of the family, Bilal, had to step
up, take charge of his family, look after his brother
in jail, and fight the legal battle as well.
The walls in Bilal’s room were covered with the
details of his brother’s case — cases under which
he had been charged, updates on the ones he had
received bail and the ones they were still fighting
to be dropped. It was a glimpse into the extent of
Bilal’s worry and inner turmoil, which affected his
mental health to the extent that he is unable to
sleep at night. He said,
“mujhe raat mein neend nahi aati. Court
website hi dekhta rehta hoon poori raat.
(I am not able to sleep at night. I just keep on
checking the court website).”
Figure 2: The wall in Bilal’s room is covered with the details
of his brother’s case. Source: Bebaak Collective, April
2022.
Amid the suffering, Bilal still hopes that his brother
will return, bringing back the normalcy they had lost
due to the riots. “Mere dimaag mein bass yahi hai
ki bhai jaldi ghar aa jaye. Phir mummy ka stress
bhi chala jayega. Woh sab sambhal lenge. (I hope
that my brother will return soon and take care of
everything at home. It will reduce my mother’s
stress as well).”
This pattern of riot victims being held criminally
responsible, leading to a sudden change in the
familial dynamics was observed in Khamaria,
Raisen district, Madhya Pradesh, as well.
Following communal violence between Muslims
and Adivasis, a situation has unfolded that lays
bare how Muslim women are reeling from the
aftereffects of a riot.
“Saare mard chale gaye, sirf aurtein bachi hai.
(All the men have been taken away. Only the
women are left behind).”
The riots took place in April 2022, at the time of
Holi, following an incident where a woman from
Khamaria was harassed by a group of men,
which devolved into a concerted attempt to loot,
target, and attack Muslims in Khamaria due to
the mobilisation efforts of the BJP and the RSS.39
16 men from the same family living in different
households in the village have been arrested and
booked by the police.
To accept and come to terms with the absurdity of
law, when it decides to go after the ones who have
been wronged, is not only to experience the breach
of the promise of fairness and justice but also the
denial of one’s citizenship and even humanity.
Muslims of Khamaria complained that they were
denied a fair hearing,
“Jiss tareeke se humare saath attyachar hua
uska koi rekh dekh nahi hua. Humari koi sunwai
nahi hui.
(We did not even get to talk about the injustice
done to us),
referring to the specific targeting of Muslims by the
police. Congregated in the veranda of their house,
Muslim women described how their fathers,
husbands and sons had been taken away by the
police under the garb of providing medical help,
leaving them alone to handle their households and
each other. They cried, “Kya humare pet nahi hai?
Kya humare bacche nahi hai jinhe school jana hai?
(Do we not have to feed ourselves? Do we not
have children who need to go to school?).”
Figure 3: House demolished by bulldozers in Khamaria,
Madhya Pradesh, April 2022. Source: Bebaak Collective,
April 2022.
Tayyaba, an activist from Shaheen Bagh, spoke
about how if the father or the brother in the family
is vocal and politically active, the rest of the family
is affected when there is a backlash from the state.
If the main male member in the family is arrested,
there is a huge feeling of isolation and crisis as a
protective presence is lost in the family.
13

She spoke about how she had to go to the police
station alone when her husband was arrested, and
no one stood by her at that moment.
A criminal case requires periodic attendance at
the court, regular interactions with the police,
and even the perpetrators of the crime that the
victim endured. Rashid Ahmed, a teenager from
Faridabad, was lynched to death a day before
Eid in 2017. His parents and brother have since
then fought his case to ensure that the men who
killed Rashid face punishment. Rashid’s father,
Imran, described the initial interactions with the
perpetrators in court where they would raise Jai
Shree Ram slogans, and continue to do so even
after efforts by the police to stop them.
“Humein police protection milti hai court mein
bhi. Main phir bhi apna chehra dhak leta hoon.
(We get police protection even in the court but
I still cover my face).”
A family from Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, whose son
Aslam, was targeted by Bajrang Dal members,
following a casteist remark, “tum log basaate
ho (you people smell),” recounted the repeated
horror of facing violence from a mob as well as the
police and village authorities. Aslam was accused
of trying to remove the deity from the temple and
forced to chant Jai Shri Ram. Aslam’s father told
us how they managed to run from the forest to
the police station to file their complaint where they
met with another form of aggression, i.e., police
brutality.
14
“Hum jungle chale gaye the bachne ke liye.
Dehshat baith gayi ki phirse maar ho jayegi.
Bahu beghair saree ke daudi. Motorcycle pe
gaye FIR likhne. Station pe bhi maar peet ki.
Humse police nahi mili aur humari report nahi
lee.
(Our daughter-in-law was forced to run without
her saree. We went on the motorcycle to the
police station where they beat us up again. The
police did not listen to us, and they did not file
our report).”
Both the police and sarpanch had told Aslam’s
family to leave the village if they wanted to save
their lives. “IO sahab ne humein kaha ‘tum log
yahan dikhne nahi chahiye. Idhar dikhna nahi
chahiye, woh maar daalenge. (The IO told us that
we should not be seen in the village. If we do, they
will kill us).”
While Aslam’s bail is still pending, the family’s
constant displacement from their home and
village, followed by a month-long stay at a hospital
in Sagar, and the ongoing police harassment have
taken their toll. Aslam’s mother-in-law, who moved
in with her daughter to help out the family, spoke
about how the violence meted out at the hands of
the police robbed them of the right to be heard, to
present their grief in public. It is a testament to how
the legal system is reduced, for Muslims, from a
concrete means of ensuring their dignity and rights
to a mere “spectacle.” She said,
“Hum apna dukh na haspatal mein bata sake
aur na police walon ko.
(We couldn’t even talk about our pain with the
doctors or the police officers).”
3.2
Financial worry and setback
to social mobility
“Musalman aur kamzor samajh kar
humare saath log dhokha karte hai.
(They see our Muslim identity and
weak status and think it’s okay to
cheat us financially).”
-Abid, Uttar Pradesh
During our interviews, the search for a vocabulary
to describe the internal struggles and worries of a
family, in the aftermath of communal targeting, often
began and ended with their financial problems. To
recount and narrate the trajectory of their financial
collapse was part of their struggle to rebuild their
lives, reconfigure everyday life to make it more
habitable, and understand the extent of loss
suffered by them. In many cases, a sudden change
in the family’s financial situation had shaken their
sense of material and mental security. For others,
communalism has fundamentally changed what
they consider as attainable for creating a stable
future for themselves.
The shock of financial loss
For the Muslim family in Khamaria, Madhya
Pradesh, the threat of murder—“agar yahan aaoge
toh aapke payr kaat diye jayenge, yahan se zinda
nahi jaoge wapis (if you come here, we will break
your legs and ensure that you won’t leave alive)”—
was used to intimidate them from taking their share
of money and equipment from their land. Houses
and two Muslim-owned shops were demolished
by the state authorities after the riot in Khamaria,
continuing a pattern of “bulldozer politics’’ wherein
people’s homes, means of livelihood, and security
are destroyed, through the public performance
of punishment, before any formal indictment.
The stress of handling the financial future of the
family is an overriding concern for the women of
the family as they are unable to travel outside
their village for work. Since the two shops owned
by the family were bulldozed they have been
unable to repay their previous loans. This crisis
has been aggravated by the fact that the men,
usually responsible for handling such decisions,
have been arrested. Rukhsana, the daughter-in-
law, described this unexpected change in familial
responsibilities.
“Jo sochne wale the unko le gaye. Jo humare
saath ho raha hai seh rahe hai aur jo hone wala
hai usko bhi bardaasht karna padega.
(We are surviving on the savings that we have
accumulated over the years. The men who
used to think and worry about these things
have been taken away. We have endured so
much and will have to tolerate a lot more of
what is going to happen).”
Abid, an elderly daily wage worker from Uttar
Pradesh, lost his son, Naseem Ajmal, to an incident
of mob lynching. Naseem was lynched to death
by a vigilante mob of around 250 people, led by
a local Shiv Sena group under the suspicion that
he was involved in cattle trading. Naseem was the
eldest son and the breadwinner of the family. The
burden has now fallen on Abid, to provide for the
entire family. Carrying out his work has become
increasingly difficult because of the anti-Muslim
hatred he has had to face at every step. While
travelling to Srinagar, Himachal Pradesh along
with thirty other Muslim men for work at the time
of Bakra-Eid, a drunk man stopped and abused
them with derogatory terms. He said, “Humari
daadhi aur topi ko dekh ke, usne wohi bhasha boli
jo sarkar bolti hai. (He used the same derogatory
language used by this government after looking
at our beards and religious garments).” He spoke
about how even though it was one man abusing a
15
 large group of thirty people, no one said a word,
and they were compelled to sit back quietly in the
bus, due to the fear of retaliation.
In another instance, Abid had provided labour
worth Rs. 15 lakh by bricklaying a building but was
denied the money owed to him. Abid described
that after his son’s death, who had been his pillar
of support, people found it easier to ignore and
reject his demands.
“Musalman aur kamzor samajh kar humare
saath log dhokha karte hai.
(They see our Muslim identity and weak status
and think it’s okay to cheat us financially).”
The graded suffering and living on the brink of
poverty, after losing a young earning male member,
came out most strongly in this discussion.
Mohammad Shamsul was brutally shot by the police
during the state’s eviction drive on September 23,
2022, in Dhalpur, Assam. Shamsul’s wife, Safeena
Ibrahim, gave us short answers regarding how
she has been coping after her husband’s death.
The difficulty in broaching a topic of personal loss
and grief became clear in our interaction with her.
She was dealing with not only the recent nature
of the incident but also the sheer enormity of
state violence in destroying her home and family.
Safeena also gave us short answers about her
medical condition, her children’s schooling, and
her maternal family’s whereabouts, all the while
trying not to break down while talking. The details
of one’s immediate survival were easier to recount
and explain, and to a certain extent, even to
enquire about as a researcher or social worker.
Waseem, a villager who was shot in his leg during
the eviction drive, explained her condition since
she neither received government compensation
nor support from her own family. “No matter how
close, she has been married off. The responsibility
16
is no longer theirs. They don’t have land, like us.
They do daily-wage labour to survive. They are
trying to look after themselves. It has been hard
for her to manage. She cannot do labour and has
three children to look after.”
Figure 4: The rebuilt houses of Dhalpur, Village 1, Assam.
Source: Bebaak Collective, May 2022.
Bilal, whose shop was burned down following the
Delhi pogrom, described how the incident had
robbed their house of its erstwhile joy—earlier,
there was a “raunak” or spark in their house as
they would keep bringing food items and snacks
from the shop.
“Ab kiraane pe jaane ka mann bhi nahi karta
hai. Apni dukaan ki bahut yaad aati hai,
(I do not feel like going to the place where our
shop was. I miss it too much),”
Bilal added as he tried to explain the ease with
which they had previously lived. His mother also
explained, “Paise ab seene se laga ke rakhte hai.
Hamari khuraak pe bhi asr pad gaya hai. (We are
very careful with money now. It has affected how
much we eat).”
Of changed dreams and aspirations among
Muslim youth
The loss of opportunities due to a riot not only
limits the economic prospects of families but also
changes people’s aspirations, dreams, and hopes
for social mobility. Bilal had planned to pursue a
career in medicine in Delhi, but due to the pogrom,
he had to miss his class XII board exams. He is 22
years old now and trying to finish school while also
planning to pursue a computer course to support
his family.
A sense of loss of prospects for upward mobility
was communicated by the eldest son of the family
in Khamaria, MP, who was pursuing his studies in
Indore before the riots. He was unable to continue
his education due to the fear of leaving his home
and the additional familial responsibilities. His
sister-in-law, Rukhsar, whose husband has been
arrested, pointed out how the experience of
witnessing her family members being wrongfully
arrested changed her daughter’s desire to become
a police officer.
“Usne dekha ki police wale kaise humein pakad
pakad ke le jaa rahe hai toh woh boli ki police
wali toh nahi banoongi,
(She saw how the police arrested innocent
people after the riot. Now she doesn’t want to
become a police officer),”
Rukhsana explained while referring to her
daughter. For activists like Sumaira, studying at
Aligarh Muslim University and witnessing the
backlash against her friends like Afreen Fatima,
has shaken her belief in the capacity of a legal
career to enact social good. She had decided
to study law to become a good lawyer and help
people. With the higher judiciary remaining silent
about the ongoing atrocities, she feels a sense of
helplessness and questions,
“Police aapke saath nahi hai, court kuch stand
le sakte the par unhone liya nahin. Mujhe
samajh nahi aa rahi main ye padhai kyun kar
rahi hoon.
(The police do not support Muslims while the
court has chosen not to take a stand. I don’t
know why I am doing a law degree in this
situation).”
Sumaira pointed towards an impossible struggle
facing Muslim youth, wherein they have been
forced to deal with how the ruling regime has taken
away their freedom to wear clothes or eat food of
their liking. There is a lack of space in the current
scenario even to ask questions and think about
what they want to do in life.
The police attack on Jamia students in December
2019, combined with the negative media portrayal
of the university, has discouraged Muslim parents
from sending their children to Jamia Millia Islamia
University, according to activist Tayyaba. Despite
the academic credentials of the university, the
parents’ fear that their children will be targeted
due to their association with Jamia has led many
of them to cancel their children’s admission or
prevent the latter from travelling to Delhi to study
at the university.
The sudden change in a family’s fortune is a
reflection of how communal violence is also geared
towards economically disempowering Mulims,40 in
addition to widening social divides. In each case,
the loss of a family member was followed by
stigma in the workplace and job market, making
it even more difficult for them to rebuild their lives.
Muslim youth are also being forced to change their
career plans in the face of difficulties at home and
in educational institutions and workplaces due to
widespread communalism.
17
 3.3
The physical toll
of loss and death
“Meri dhadkan khatm ho gayi hai. Sar
aur chest mein hamesha dard rehta
hai.
(I find it extremely hard to breathe.
There is a constant pain in my head
and chest these days).”
Figure 5: Muslim students in Karnataka denied entry
into IDSG Government College, Chikmanglur due to the
institution’s discriminatory policies towards hijab wearing – Farhad, Delhi
students. Source: The Cognate.
The experience of illness is narrated not just
through a list of symptoms but also as part
of our everyday lives. Making sense of one’s
physical illness entails reflecting on events that
fundamentally altered the quality of one’s life.41 We
observed that in several interviews, the onset of
chronic weakness, physical injury, impairment, and
death were all explained as part of the experience
of being a victim of communal violence. Bilal told
us about his father’s death, which took place six
days after his brother’s arrest, “Bhai ke arrest ke
sadme ki wajah se abba khatm ho gaye. (My father
passed away due to the shock of my brother’s
arrest).” His mother is now bedridden, unable to
leave home and take up any kind of household
chores, while Bilal has taken certain steps to cope
with the stress of his responsibilities.
“Pathri ke liye ek capsule hoti hai. Wohi leta
rehta hoon. Lat si lag gayi hai.
(It has become a habit of mine to keep taking
pills meant for kidney stones).”
18
Figure 6: Relatives of a victim of Delhi pogrom in mourning.
Source: The Guardian
The grief over the loss of their child took a physical
toll on Hamid’s father, who suffered a major
heart attack after his son’s death. Hamid’s father
broke down while trying to talk about the attack,
an indication of how difficult it was for him to deal
with the violent nature of his child’s death. The
medical procedure added to the family’s debt as
they had to sell three plots of land to fight their
son’s case in court. Shameem, Hamid’s brother,
who suffered serious injuries during the communal
attack is unable to secure employment because
of his physical disability. For his mother, Farhad,
the incident has caused permanent damage to
her body, “Meri dhadkan khatm ho gayi hai. Sar
aur chest mein hamesha dard rehta hai. (I find it
extremely hard to breathe. There is a constant
pain in my head and chest these days).”
The loss of family members to communal violence,
therefore, is not just a singular event involving the
violence inflicted by vigilante mobs or the state’s
heavy hand, but an ongoing crisis that consumes
and affects people in various ways. Naseem’s
mother was unable to come to terms with the
tragedy of her son’s death seven years ago. We
were informed that she had “gone mad” (“mummy
dimaaghi rukh se pagal ho gayi hai”). Naseem’s
sister spoke about the erratic changes in her mood,
“Kabhi bahut gussa karti hai, kabhi normal
rehti hai. Subah mein chali jaati aur shyaam
mein wapis aati hai. Do teen din tak khana nahi
khaati.
(Sometimes she is fine and other times she
gets extremely angry. She leaves the house in
the morning and comes back in the evening.
Sometimes she goes 2-3 days without eating).”
Initially, when she heard the news of her son’s
death, Naseem’s mother refused to speak for
six days. It was the nature of her mourning—a
complete reversal from her usual state of being
social and regularly engaging in household
chores. Her husband, Abid, spoke about the pain
of watching her grieve in a way that detached her
from the rest of the family, “Kisi se baat nahi ki. Woh
bass roti rahi. Na keh ke roi, na bol ke roi, bass
aasu tapakte hue dikhe aur kuch nahi. (She did
not speak to anyone. She simply wailed and shed
tears; she did not even cry with words).” When
asked about pursuing mental health treatment, the
family spoke about their complete lack of funds.
Abid, the sole earning member of the family, has
been unable to manage his wife’s reaction to their
son’s death.
He spoke about the huge responsibility on his
shoulders: doing hard wage labour to continue
feeding his family, paying the medical bills of
one of his daughters who suffered from severe
tuberculosis, and the pending marriage of his third
daughter. Amidst these concerns for basic survival
and sustenance, his wife’s mental health was not
seen as a pressing need and accepted as a natural
and unfixable part of their lives. Being denied the
usual course of diagnosis and treatment, and forced
to put together the pieces of their lives destroyed
by cow vigilantism, is an example of how Muslims
face discrimination within the health sector and
how their suffering is made acute because of their
socio-economic backwardness.
19

The impact of political violence escapes an easy
explanation of the loss of one’s physical health,
leading to increased personal suffering and pain,
because it also changes one’s strength as a
citizen. Asghar, an activist from Shaheen Bagh,
raised a unique and important point about the
relationship between having a healthy mind and
the ability to protest. In order to protest, to talk
about what is acceptable and what is not, and
to raise one’s voice, mental health is necessary:
the strength to understand and think about the
situation. He believed that at least 70 per cent of
people in the community needed to have a healthy
mind in order for the community to be mobilised
politically. The government, however, is making
every possible effort to break this ability through
the explicit alienation and othering of Muslims.
Individual strength is derived from, and impacted
by, the level of social and political support a
community receives. Aslam’s father, from Sagar,
Madhya Pradesh, had to be hospitalised for a
month due to the injuries inflicted by the Bajrang
Dal mob. His family of five, after being forced out
of their village, stayed with him in the hospital
for that time period. The ability of the hospital
to accommodate them and not adopt a hostile
attitude, went a long way in helping the family find
a footing after being displaced from their home.
20
3.4
Fear and Hypervigilance
“Chaar saal ho gaye mujhe bazaar
gaye huye. Wahan main pehle 24/7
wohi baitha rehta tha aur 12 baje
ghar aata tha. Meri tabiyat ab wahan
lagti hi nahi hai.
(It has been four years since I have
been to the market. Earlier, I used to
sit there the whole day. I just don’t
feel like going there any more).”
- Rashid, Delhi
The continuous nature of trauma often changes
the victims’ everyday lives and interactions,
reproducing its effects in how they interact with
the world, primarily through their religious identity
and their decisions about where and how they
choose to travel, whom they sit down with, and
how much and with whom they speak. The core
beliefs of victims are transformed, increasing their
watchfulness and susceptibility to anxious thoughts
as their trust in a predictable and peaceful world is
disrupted by communal violence.42
Figure 7: Police attacked civilians during the anti-CAA-
NPR-NRC protests in Kanpur, December 2020. Source:
The Wire.
Restricted mobility of Muslim women
The situation of a riot leaves scars in the form of
hypervigilance, i.e., being in a state where the
victims anticipate more violence and lose faith
in a promise of a return to normalcy where the
heightened sense of alertness and anticipation of
violence itself becomes the new normal. The riot is
communicated and registered as a warning in the
speeches of political leaders and right wing social
media posts — this can happen again. In the case
of the women, who were collected from different
houses and locked away in one place during the
riot in Khamaria, this vigilance takes the form
of closing themselves off and restricting where
they travel, while still grappling with the pressing
concerns of money and caring for their children
and relatives.
“Log bahar se aak dange karke chale gaye,
hum isse abhi bhi jhoonjh rahe hai.
(It was so easy for people from outside to
cause riots in our village. Now, we have to deal
with its consequences).”
In a riot, sexual violence is a looming threat for
women. The experience of finding themselves
at the mercy of a violent crowd haunts them as
it continues to shape their social interactions
and mobility post-riot. Women recalled how the
crowd had threatened them, saying, “keh rahe
the ki ladies aur bacchon dono ko mat chodo.
(The rioters said that they will not spare even the
women and children).” The “carnivalesque aspect”
of a rioting mob,43 recently seen in the spectre
of sword wielding crowds dancing to Islamophic
music, slogans and chants during Ram Navami,
has a particularly devastating effect on women as
it rekindles memories of violence.44
They recounted how the rioters, coming from
the adivasi villages, asserted their Hindu identity,
“Humein kam mat samajhna. (Don’t think that we
are any less than Hindus).” The women of the
family, involved in the initial conflict, have become
fearful of stepping out of their homes.
The restricted mobility of women due to the fear of
violation in riots came up regularly in interviews.
Zebunissa, Naseem’s youngest sister, was forced
to leave school after her brother’s death. She was
in the seventh grade, and was unable to complete
the half-yearly exams due in the private school she
attended. Neither Zebunissa nor her elder sister
do any kind of work outside of the house. They
sew at home and manage the household, while the
elder sister waits till there is enough money for her
marriage. Some girls in their area do have jobs,
but a sense of fear about their safety and their
religious identity have prevented their father from
sending them outside the house.
Sumaira, an activist from Aligarh Muslim
University, argued that the curbing of the freedom
to practise religion or prohibiting the wearing of the
hijab had led her parents to restrict her movement
outside the house. The threat of violence within a
volatile communalised atmosphere has restricted
women’s mobility to a great extent. Earlier, she
said, women weren’t allowed to leave the house
due to patriarchy; now, even if they want to do
anything like work or study, the lack of social
safety restricts them. The sexualisation of Muslim
women within the Hindu nationalist imagination,
with its manifestation in both online and offline
violence, 45 has exacerbated the control over their
bodies and the forms of unfreedom experienced
by them within familial structures. The intersection
of patriarchal and communal violence has also
amplified the securitarian discourse46 that seeks
to limit women’s mobility and participation within
the public sphere.
21

Of isolation and abandoned social practices
Rashid’s father used to visit his local bazaar
regularly to decompress after work and meet his
friends and neighbours. After his son’s violent
death, he has stopped these daily visits,
“Chaar saal ho gaye mujhe bazaar gaye huye.
Wahan main pehle 24/7 wohi baitha rehta
tha aur 12 baje ghar aata tha. Meri tabiyat ab
wahan lagti hi nahi hai
(It has been four years since I have been to the
market. Earlier, I used to sit there the whole
day. I just don’t feel like going there anymore).”
He added that ever since they have been provided
with police protection, they prefer not to travel
without it, saying,
“Hum ab police ke bina kahi niklate hi nahi hai.
Humko wakil ne keh diya hai ki apne beton ko
nikalne mat dena. Aisi dehshat baithi hui hai.
(We have been given strict instructions by our
lawyer not to allow our sons to go out alone.
The fear is so much that we never leave the
house without police protection).”
Since Rashid was attacked in a local train, there is
now a reluctance to use it. His brother spoke about
how they are forced to take the metro or travel by
car.
Zeenat, an activist from Lucknow, witnessed the
police attack her family during the crackdown on
activists who were a part of the anti-CAA-NPR-
NRC movement. Zeenat had been active with
the ghanta ghar sit-in in Lucknow and involved
with the larger feminist movement. The visual of
the day when her father and brother were beaten
up in front of her eyes and arrested by the police,
her sisters were made to run on the road, and
22
the neighbours came together on the streets to
witness the scene of police brutality, has stayed
with her. Even now, slight and sudden movements
and unexpected noises remind Zeenat of that day.
If someone shouts, shuts the window with force,
knocks on the door or repeatedly rings the bell,
she is immediately transferred to that day,
“Ek dum se dil kaanp jaata hai ki kuch ho gaya
ya kuch hone wala hai.
(It fills me with so much fear. I feel as though
something bad is going to happen again).”
As a result of our interviews, we were able to
see how, when a seemingly routine day can turn
catastrophic, resulting in the loss or arrest of loved
ones, the memory of that day (specifically, the fear
or dehshat induced by it) continues to shape the
lives of victims and family members.
3.5
Losing community,
neighbours and friends
“Mere sanghathan aur bhi mahila
sanghatan mein logon ne dekha
magar kisi ka koi response nahi tha.
(People from my organisation and
other social rights organisations
saw what happened to me but never
reached out).”
– Zeenat, Uttar Pradesh
A disruption in relations with people who
occupy our everyday emotional and social
lives is a feature of “institutionalised everyday
communalism,” wherein instead of consequent
healing and rebuilding of relationships, a “new
normal” characterised by betrayal and mistrust is
created. In addition to a communal event altering
relations within a community of people, the general
feeling of distance from one’s acquaintances and
friends is also being observed. Shamima used the
word “betrayal” to encapsulate the experience of
Muslims in India, wherein they are witnessing their
friends, neighbours, and colleagues showcasing
their support for right-wing politics. The hurt of
this experience is accentuated by the espousal of
anti-Muslim politics by one’s friends, co-workers,
neighbours, and acquaintances. Their political
beliefs translate into a world view, which closes the
distance between one’s friend and the stereotype
of a “Muslim,” provided by this political (mis)
understanding. Therefore, friends and neighbours
disappear in the face of a hateful image of the
Muslim “other.”
Figure 8: Residents of Jahangirpura, a Muslim dominated
neighbourhood, which faced demolition drives after the
Ram Navami violence in April 2022. Source: Article 14
The experience of Muslim girls in Karnataka,
whose right to education was curbed by the
school’s decision to ban hijabs in the classroom,
brought this out very clearly. 47 They witnessed
their friends and classmates turn against them,
participating in rallies where they wore saffron
scarves and mocked, shamed, and bullied them
for refusing to back down and choosing to continue
wearing their hijab. Shamima explained this
situation when she spoke about her own Muslim
clients: “People talk about the disappointment with
friends, losing relationships and not even having
the space to grieve that relationship because the
people that they had to end relationships with
are avid hate mongers. I have also lost so many
friends because of this.” She shared her own loss
of many friendships and the dissonance that is felt
in relationships: at one end, feeling the extreme
urgency of feeling a threat to one’s life due to
one’s Muslim identity, and at the other, having
Islamophobia dismissed as a real issue in the
country.
Sayeda Zainab, an activist who was imprisoned
because of her role in the organising anti-CAA-
NRC movement and is now out on bail spoke
about how her family’s support was a significant
factor that helped her during and after her
23

incarceration. However, the turning back of both
her childhood friends and progressive community,
deeply disappointed her. She spoke about a
betrayal from the “so-called progressive people
in the country” that she felt along with many other
young people in her circle. In comparison to the
farmers’ movement, she observed that the anti-
CAA, NRC, NPR movement did not receive the
same kind of support. The feeling of betrayal
also comes from the way people in general
from the majority community have become
insensitive to the suffering of Muslims and do
not react when Muslims are particularly targeted.
young people in her circle. In comparison to the
farmers’ movement, she observed that the anti-
CAA, NRC, NPR movement did not receive the
same kind of support. The feeling of betrayal also
comes from the way people in general from the
majority community have become insensitive to
the suffering of Muslims and do not react when
Muslims are particularly targeted.
She was forced to realise the differential treatment
on the basis of her identity, she compared the
response to her arrest, to that of activists from the
majority community. Her minority identity and the
place of her birth (Kashmir) enabled a profiling
of her that was not possible for other activists
involved in movements.
Zainab spoke about how initially, after her release,
many people she knew would not interact with her.
On top of that, due to the UAPA case against her,
any of her friends could be witnesses against her;
therefore interacting with anyone could amount to
intimidating or pressuring a witness. She described
the grave sense of fear among students in Jamia
during that period due to different intimidation
tactics by the state. Students were called for
questioning, their families were harassed, and
they were pressured into making false statements.
Losing her friends from the majority community
who come from a family of BJP supporters was a
24
shocking and painful experience, during a difficult
time in her life. Although Shaheen Bagh received
a great deal of popularity during the anti-CAA
movement, to the extent of becoming a symbol of
protest and a household name, activists involved
in the movement did not feel like they received
support after the events of February 24, 2020. By
the 24th, riots had broken out in North-East Delhi,
and a long period of harassment of Muslim activists
began from arrests, to police harassment to legal
harassment to the extent of becoming a symbol of
protest and a household name, activists involved
in the movement did not feel like they received
support after the events of February 24, 2020.
By the 24th, riots had broken out in North-East
Delhi, and a long period of harassment of Muslim
activists began from arrests, to police harassment
to legal harassment.
An activist who had been slapped with several
cases after the Delhi riots due to his activism
in Shaheen Bagh spoke about his harrowing
experience. Even though it was such a large
movement, and many groups, political parties,
and lawyers had promised help and support, those
promises remain painfully empty. He spoke about
how he had to fight everything on a personal level,
the limits of peoples promise became evident
after the riots. People disappeared when the crisis
reached his doorstep: his parents in UP were
harassed, he was slapped with several cases
under the National Security Act (NSA), and the
police turned up at his house every time there was
any kind of political activity in Shaheen Bagh.
Zeenat also expressed disappointment with her
own organisation and its members who had failed
to reach out to her and extend their support and
solidarity during her father’s arrest. She said,
“Mere sanghathan aur bhi mahila sanghatan mein
logon ne dekha magar kisi ka koi response nahi
tha. (People from my organisation and other social
rights organisations saw what happened to me but
never reached out).” Her anger was directed
towards the established members of the
progressive community who still failed to speak
up for her, “Agar itne established log darte hai
toh phir humein kyun aage karte hai? (How do
such established people expect us to lead the
movement when they themselves are so scared?)”
Zeenat also described how she felt guilty about her
family’s suffering as everyone around her blamed
her, her work and her activism,
“Ye itna zyada feel ho raha tha ki agar meri
wajah se hua toh mujhe kyun nahi le ke gaye,
papa ko kyun le gaye?
(I felt that if this was happening because of me,
why didn’t they arrest me? Why did they go
after my father?)”
She now feels there is need to be careful since
the fight against the state will be a prolonged
one, requiring both commitment and deliberate,
calculated action.
The Bhopal-based activist, Shama, who had
visited the family in Sagar when Akram was
undergoing treatment for his injuries, pointed out
how there is a lack of political mobilisation from
even within Muslims when it comes to Pasmanda
Muslims, increasing their feeling of abandonment
and isolation,
“They wear sarees and bindis and don’t look
or speak like typical Muslims. It’s easier for
activists and organisations to ignore their
cases.”
A simple Hindu-Muslim binary cannot explain the
violence faced by Pasmanda Muslims. A complex
layer of casteism and communal violence has
disrupted their access to avenues of formal justice
as well as community support.48
3.6
Hope for a political future
“We are reminded on a daily basis
that our voice and existence is illegal,
there is no one to go to for help.
I don’t have words to express, I’m not
able to react. How do I tell you what
is happening and what will happen in
the future?”
- Sumaira, Uttar Pradesh
The precarious future of Muslim children
Tabassum and Mariam from Shaheen Bagh,
expressed their fears regarding the impact
consuming media had on their children. From
seeing images and videos of violence against
Muslims to listening to the anti-Muslim national
discourse on television, they spoke about how
their children’s lives were mediated by these
devices, and how they were influenced by them.
For example, their children saw videos of the
police backlash after some Muslim youth took out
a rally for jumma; they saw the extreme violence
handed out to men not very much older than them.
What would be the long term effects of seeing a
discourse full of hatred and images of violence
on the younger generation? This was a recurring
anxiety articulated by the women activists.
Another more general concern expressed by the
group of activists from Shaheen Bagh, was of
the future lives of the next generation. According
to them, they had seen relatively good times. As
parents, they felt that the future in India was bleak,
with meagre prospects for Muslims.
25

Rehmat, a Baroda-based activist who works with
Muslim women, spoke about her experiences
in Gujarat since 2004, when she first became
involved in community organising. She shared how
communal violence occurring in other regions has
instilled a sense of dread that it may occur in their
community as well. How they will cope if something
were to happen to them is a pressing anxiety for
the people with whom she works. Rehmat spoke
about the fear she experiences and how those
around her share the same thoughts and worries.
She said that young people felt frustrated as they
are unable to comprehend what to do or how to
improve the situation.
Tasleem, an activist from Saharanpur, Uttar
Pradesh, spoke candidly about the political climate
in her region. As she spoke to us, arrests were
taking place in different parts of UP in response
to a religious rally held on Friday after namaaz in
protest agaisnt Nupur Sharma’s remarks about
Prophet Mohammed. While Tasleem spoke to
us, she conveyed an acute sense of fear and
uncertainty that was close at hand. She informed
us about the mass arrests of youth in her town,
including those who had not taken part in the
rally. She spoke specifically about the arrests
of young Muslim men and the police brutality
and violence inflicted upon them. In addition to
arresting and physically torturing young Muslim
men in Saharanpur, the police had also initiated
a demolition drive, which was underway when we
met with Tasleem. Faced with increasing state
repression, difficulties in securing FCRA (Foreign
Contribution Regulation Act) for several NGOs,49
and the threat of violence, activists are constantly
worrying about sustaining their work and mobilising
the political community to build a strong resistance
movement.
26
Cultivating hope: What is to be done?
The smallest mistake or digression by a member
of the Muslim community is met with a response
that is blown up in proportion to the crime. The
government waits for the community to make a
mistake and responds with aggressive tactics
such as bulldozing homes. People are tortured
and jailed at the smallest perceived “mistake.”
The pattern of targeting the Muslim community
in the form of organised riots has now taken the
form of attacks on individual Muslims, journalists,
and activists. The cumulative impact of individual
cases of Muslims being arrested and jailed under
stringent laws has been to completely silence the
community. This was echoed by the activists from
Shaheen Bagh, who said that the mental pressure
of witnessing all this has caused the community
to become quiet, with many ceasing to respond to
the situation.
Frustration, pressure, and a sense of helplessness
also accompany many of the activists we spoke
to. What can be done in this situation is a pressing
question asked with desperation and a need to act,
albeit without clear paths of struggle ahead.
Figure 9: Jamia students at the helm of anti-CAA-NPR-
NRC protests held in December 2019.
Rehmat highlighted how, before, the support of the
police in filing FIRs would be taken for granted, but
now that it has disappeared, avenues for justice
seem non-existent. She spoke about how activists
like her all faced the same question: How do we
bring about a change in this situation? Even after
filing FIRs and taking issues up at the national
level, the communalised atmosphere seems to
be deteriorating rapidly. If they raise the issue of
communal riots with the police, they are told to
go to Pakistan. She attributed this mentality to 25
years of the BJP’s rule in Gujarat.
Tasleem spoke about not only a general sense of
fear, but also her own personal fear as an activist
living in a Muslim majority neighbourhood in town.
She confided in us that she was living with her
mother for the past three days due to the dread
of her impending arrest. There were arrests and
campaigns happening as we spoke. She was
terrified at the thought of returning home and told
us that she was unsure of the consequences. The
situation, she said, created a lot of stress and
tension in her mind.
Sumaira, evaluating the situation wherein her
friend’s childhood home was destroyed by the
Uttar Pradesh government, spoke about a strong
feeling of despair and helplessness:
“We are reminded on a daily basis that our
voice and existence are illegal; there is no one
to go to for help. I don’t have words to express
myself; I’m not able to react. How do I tell you
what is happening and what will happen in
the future? I’ve lost the words to react. How
do I help another person; tell them to remain
brave, tell them that we have to come out
on the streets and fight back; how long do
we keep telling people to be brave and give
them solace; how long can I wait till things get
better? Because nothing is getting better.”
Figure 10: The sit-in at Shaheen Bagh, Delhi, January
2020. Source: Indian Legal
Emphasising a vacuum in terms of political
leadership, Humayun, an activist from
Maharashtra, talked about the silence of forty-
four elected Muslim MLAs in UP. Their inability
to use their political position to highlight violence
against Muslims was striking; he felt that their
active opposition to the current regime could have
made a difference. He observed that the religious
leaders of the community were solely mobilised on
questions of “mazhab,” or religious articulation of
Muslim identity, and had no concrete solutions to
the deteriorating situation. The BJP and the RSS,
on the other hand, have a very concerted agenda.
In this scenario, he raised the question of what a
common person could do. With the government
dismantling organisations and attacking activists,
he said the common man could do nothing but
pray. People look for some kind of “tasalli” or
solace in their lives and have no option but to wait
for God’s intervention.
Still, Humayun felt that activists must try to find
areas of possible intervention, even if those
areas seem very few; if defeat is accepted, “then
everything will be over for us.” He also talked
about the need to study the resistance tactics of
anti-apartheid activists and Jews in Nazi Germany
to find new ways of opposing the government.
27
 4 5
Our findings show that the experience of health, in
its physical and mental manifestations, is politically
mediated. Undergoing an episode of communal
violence fundamentally alters the quality of one’s
life. We observed that it changes priorities in
education and career as well as the mental stability
of people. The unfair judicial system, especially
for Muslims, has left them with a sense of
hopelessness, stealing from them the right to think
and plan about their futures. The role played by
the absence of an unbiased, independent judiciary
in cultivating and fueling this hopelessness speaks
to the significance of the institution in acting as a
balancing force against the authoritarian policies
of the government.
The cascading effects of financial ruin and a
severe decline in physical health due to anti-
Muslim hate were noted in several interviews. The
loss of community severely affects one’s sense of
confidence and surety about navigating a difficult
situation of legal cases or simply rebuilding one’s
life after a violent incident. We found that the
persistent question of building politically viable
options for Muslim youth, wherein they are able to
access state institutions without the fear of being
targeted, is something that has preoccupied the
minds of several Muslim activists.
An all-pervading sense of being made to feel
powerless in front of a fascist state and hateful
ideology, which has forced several Muslim victims
of communal violence to change how they live their
lives, is the most important point that has emerged
from our work. It is in these small changes as well
as the more overt forms of deterioration in physical
health and financial or material loss that the mental
health of Muslims needs to be evaluated and
located.
28
The mental health problems faced by Muslims can counselling services for Muslims should be made
be addressed by mitigating the harm created by available at the local and district levels, as well
an increasingly communal social, political, and as in Muslim-concentrated areas where access
economic landscape. The role of civil society to healthcare is especially restricted. Training
is crucial in ensuring that the legal system is given to health care workers needs to include
held accountable for its treatment of Muslim information on dealing with people who are victims
victims of hate crimes. They also need to act as of hate crimes and communal riots in order to
watchdogs by creating pressure on authorities to provide treatment based on the principles of non-
take appropriate action against instigators and discrimination and equity of care.
perpetrators of communal violence.
Mental healthcare workers should adopt and
The National Human Rights Commission and the push for a different approach in their practice
National and State Minority Commissions can play that prioritises an understanding of the effects of
crucial roles in supplementing police investigations class, caste, and religious markers on a person’s
into cases of communal violence through their own well-being. Mental health practitioners also have
mechanisms of inquiry and ensuring that a fair a responsibility to further investigate and research
hearing is afforded to victims. It is extremely critical the trauma caused by identity-related violence.
that the state governments provide compensation They need to ensure a more robust and active
to victims of hate crimes. implementation of the stipulations of the Mental
Health Care Act, 2018, which states, “There
The experiences of people interviewed for this shall be no discrimination on any basis including
report have also shown the importance of civil gender, sex, sexual orientation, religion, culture,
society organisations in providing emotional caste, social or political beliefs, class or disability.”
support and community strength to victims. Grass
roots organisations, women’s groups, and other
civil society groups need to actively engage with
victims of hate crimes by providing them with
solidarity to counteract not only the stigma often
attached to victims but also to create a safe
space for them to unburden themselves and seek
support.
At the level of law, a more comprehensive set of
efforts by the state, judiciary, media, and multiple
stakeholders is needed to address the issues
that Muslims face. An anti-discrimination law—
recognising the multiple and intersecting forms
of oppression—is required to register the various
forms of hate crimes committed against minorities
in India.
Given the deep psychological impact of growing
communalisation, trauma care centres and
29

1. Gupta, Ashish and Diane Coffey, “Caste,
Religion, and Mental Health in India,”
Population Research Policy Review 39, no. 6
(2020): 1119-1141.
2. Farooqui, Neelo and Absar Ahmad, “Communal
Violence, Mental Health and Their Correlates:
A Cross-Sectional Study in Two Riot Affected
Districts of Uttar Pradesh in India,” Journal of
Muslim Minority Affairs 41, no. 3 (2021): 510-
521.
3. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), “Kashmir
Mental Health Survey,” Institute of Mental Health
and Neurosciences (IMHANS), University of
Kashmir, 2015, https://msfsouthasia.org/sites/
default/files/2016-10/kashmir_mental_health_
survey_report_2015_for_web.pdf (accessed
on November 29, 2022).
4. Interview with Dr. Samah Jabr, https://
qz.com/1521806/palestines-head-of-mental-
health-services-says-ptsd-is-a-western-
concept (accessed on November 28, 2022).
5. Kleinman, Arthur, Veena Das, and Margaret
M. Lock eds., Social Suffering (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1997).
6. Sircar, Oishik, “Spectacles of Emancipation:
Reading Rights Differently in India’s Legal
Discourse,” Osgoode Hall LJ 49, no. 3 (2011):
527-573.
7. Chandra, Rajshree, “‘Extraordinary’ laws
are becoming central to the politics of
repression in India,” The Wire, August 28,
2018, https://thewire.in/rights/extraordinary-
laws-are-becoming-central-to-the-politics-of-
repression-in-india (accessed on October 22,
2022).
30
survey_report_2015_for_web.pdf (accessed
on November 29, 2022).
4. Interview with Dr. Samah Jabr, https://
qz.com/1521806/palestines-head-of-mental-
health-services-says-ptsd-is-a-western-
concept (accessed on November 28, 2022).
5. Kleinman, Arthur, Veena Das, and Margaret
M. Lock eds., Social Suffering (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1997).
6. Sircar, Oishik, “Spectacles of Emancipation:
Reading Rights Differently in India’s Legal
Discourse,” Osgoode Hall LJ 49, no. 3 (2011):
527-573.
7. Chandra, Rajshree, “‘Extraordinary’ laws
are becoming central to the politics of
repression in India,” The Wire, August 28,
2018, https://thewire.in/rights/extraordinary-
laws-are-becoming-central-to-the-politics-of-
repression-in-india (accessed on October 22,
2022).
8. Verghese, Leah, “NCRB 2019 data shows
165% jump in sedition cases, 33% jump in
UAPA cases under Modi govt,” The Print,
October 12, 2020, https://theprint.in/opinion/
ncrb-2019-data-shows-165-jump-in-sedition-
cases-33-jump-in-uapa-cases-under-modi-
govt (accessed on October 24, 2022).
9. Manral, Mahender Singh, “Mohammed Zubair,
AltNews co-founder, arrested for allegedly
hurting religious sentiments,” Indian Express,
June 28, 2022, https://indianexpress.com/
article/cities/delhi/altnews-co-founder-
mohammad-zubair-arrested-by-delhi-
police-7994635/ (accessed on November 27,
2022).
10. Patel, Aakar, “Book Excerpt: The Many
Anti-Muslim Laws Brought in by the Modi
Government,” The Wire, November 12, 2021,
https://thewire.in/politics/price-of-the-modi-
years-book-excerpt (accessed on November
27, 2022).
11. Dash, Sweta, “Behind The BJP’s 2-Child
Policies, An Anti-Muslim Agenda that will
Endanger All Indian Women,” Article 14,
September 8, 2021, https://article-14.com/
post/behind-the-bjp-s-2-child-policies-an-
anti-muslim-agenda-that-will-endanger-all-
indian-women--613823097d3c5 (accessed on
November 28, 2022).
12. Jayal, Niraja Gopal, “Reconfiguring Citizenship
in Contemporary India,” South Asia: Journal of
South Asian Studies 42, no. 1 (2019): 3- 50.
13. Parashar, Utpal, “Over 19 lakh excluded,
3.1 crore included in Assam NRC final list,”
Hindustan Times, June 24,2020, https://www.
hindustantimes.com/india-news/assam-nrc-
1-9-million-names-excluded-from-final-list
(accessed on November 30, 2022).
https://thewire.in/politics/price-of-the-modi-
years-book-excerpt (accessed on November
27, 2022).
11. Dash, Sweta, “Behind The BJP’s 2-Child
Policies, An Anti-Muslim Agenda that will
Endanger All Indian Women,” Article 14,
September 8, 2021, https://article-14.com/
post/behind-the-bjp-s-2-child-policies-an-
anti-muslim-agenda-that-will-endanger-all-
indian-women--613823097d3c5 (accessed on
November 28, 2022).
12. Jayal, Niraja Gopal, “Reconfiguring Citizenship
in Contemporary India,” South Asia: Journal of
South Asian Studies 42, no. 1 (2019): 3- 50.
13. Parashar, Utpal, “Over 19 lakh excluded,
3.1 crore included in Assam NRC final list,”
Hindustan Times, June 24,2020, https://www.
hindustantimes.com/india-news/assam-nrc-
1-9-million-names-excluded-from-final-list
(accessed on November 30, 2022).
14. Gowen, Annie and Manas Sharma, “Rishing
Hate in India,” Washington Post, October
31, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/
graphics/2018/world/reports-of-hate-crime-
cases-have-spiked-in-india/ (accessed on
November 30, 2022).
15. Bhat, Mohsin Alam, “‘The Irregular’and the
Unmaking of Minority Citizenship: The Rules
of Law in Majoritarian India,” Queen Mary Law
Research Paper 395 (2022): 1-37, https://
ssrn.com/abstract=4274814 (accessed on
November 20, 2022).
16. Staff Reporter, “Gregory Stanton Warns,
‘India Is On The Verge Of Genocide Against
Muslims’,” ENewsroom, September 7, 2022,
https://enewsroom.in/genocide-against-
indian-muslims-gregory-stanton/ (accessed
on October 20, 2022).
17. Jaffrelot, Christophe, Hindu Nationalism:
A Reader (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 2007).
18. Chander, Mani, “The Rising Intimidation
of India’s Muslims & The Criminalisation of
Eating, Praying, Loving & Doing Business,”
Article 14, September 16, 2022, https://
article-14.com/post/the-rising-intimidation-of-
india-s-muslims-the-criminalisation-of-eating-
praying-loving-doing-business- (accessed on
November 22, 2022).
19. Jaffrelot, Christophe, Modi’s India: Hindu
Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021).
20. Pai, Sudha and Sajjan Kumar, Everyday
Communalism: Riots in Contemporary Uttar
Pradesh (New Delhi: Oxford University Press,
2018).
indian-muslims-gregory-stanton/ (accessed
on October 20, 2022).
17. Jaffrelot, Christophe, Hindu Nationalism:
A Reader (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 2007).
18. Chander, Mani, “The Rising Intimidation
of India’s Muslims & The Criminalisation of
Eating, Praying, Loving & Doing Business,”
Article 14, September 16, 2022, https://
article-14.com/post/the-rising-intimidation-of-
india-s-muslims-the-criminalisation-of-eating-
praying-loving-doing-business- (accessed on
November 22, 2022).
19. Jaffrelot, Christophe, Modi’s India: Hindu
Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021).
20. Pai, Sudha and Sajjan Kumar, Everyday
Communalism: Riots in Contemporary Uttar
Pradesh (New Delhi: Oxford University Press,
2018).
21. Raj, Kaushik and Alishan Jafri, “As Hindu
Extremists Repeatedly Call For Muslim
Genocide, The Police Ignore An Obvious
Conspiracy,” Article 14, January 10, 2022,
https://article-14.com/post/as-hindu-
extremists-repeatedly-call-for-muslim-
genocide-the-police-ignore-an-obvious-
conspiracy (accessed on November 25, 2022).
22. Jafri, Alishan and Naomi Barton, “Explained:
‘Trads’ vs ‘Raitas’ and the Inner Workings
of India’s Alt-Right,” The Wire, January
11, 2022,https://thewire.in/communalism/
genocide-as-pop-culture-inside-the-hindutva-
world-of-trads-and-raitas (accessed on
November 25, 2022).
23. Roy, Divyanshu Dutta, “Outrage As Muslim
Women Listed On App For ‘Auction’ With Pics
Again,” NDTV, January 1, 2022, https://www.
ndtv.com/india-news/bulli-bai-app-revives-
sulli-deals-row-outrage-as-muslim-women-
listed-on-app-for-auction-with-pics-again-
2683879https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/
bulli-bai-app-revives-sulli-deals-row-outrage-
as-muslim-women-listed-on-app-for-auction-
with-pics-again-2683879 (accessed on
November 25, 2022).
24. Sharma, Betwa, “What 8.5 Million Tweets
Targeting Rana Ayyub Tell Us About Online
Violence & The Failure To Stop It,” Article 14,
July 15, 2022, https://article-14.com/post/what-
8-5-million-tweets-targeting-rana-ayyub-tell-
us-about-online-violence-the-failure-to-stop-it-
62d104dd20f4b (accessed on November 26,
2022).
31

world-of-trads-and-raitas (accessed on
November 25, 2022).
23. Roy, Divyanshu Dutta, “Outrage As Muslim
Women Listed On App For ‘Auction’ With Pics
Again,” NDTV, January 1, 2022, https://www.
ndtv.com/india-news/bulli-bai-app-revives-
sulli-deals-row-outrage-as-muslim-women-
listed-on-app-for-auction-with-pics-again-
2683879https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/
bulli-bai-app-revives-sulli-deals-row-outrage-
as-muslim-women-listed-on-app-for-auction-
with-pics-again-2683879 (accessed on
November 25, 2022).
24. Sharma, Betwa, “What 8.5 Million Tweets
Targeting Rana Ayyub Tell Us About Online
Violence & The Failure To Stop It,” Article 14,
July 15, 2022, https://article-14.com/post/what-
8-5-million-tweets-targeting-rana-ayyub-tell-
us-about-online-violence-the-failure-to-stop-it-
62d104dd20f4b (accessed on November 26,
2022).
25. Junaid, Tazeen, “Minorities on Prime Time: An
inquiry into the portrayal of Christians, Muslims,
and Sikhs on Television News,” in Religious
Minorities In India Report: Documenting Socio-
Political Status Of Religious Minorities In India
(Council on Minority Rights in India, November
2022), https://www.cmriusa.org/wp-content/
uploads/2022/11/CMRI-Religious-Minorities-
Report-2021.pdf (accessed on November 22,
2022).
26. Alam, Arshad, “‘Shown their place’: Muslim
livelihoods under attack in India,” AlJazeera,
September 27, 2021, https://www.aljazeera.
com/news/2021/9/27/india-muslims-
livelihoods-islamophobia-hindu-groups
(accessed on November 26, 2022).
27. Jamil, Ghazala, “The Capitalist Logic of
Spatial Segregation: A Study of Muslims in
Delhi,” Economic and Political Weekly 49, no.
3 (January 2014): 52-58.
28. Naraharisetty, Rohitha, “Muslim Gig Workers
Are Beginning to Face Bigotry on the Job
— And Nobody Is Helping,” The Swaddle,
October 19, 2022, https://theswaddle.com/
muslim-gig-workers-are-beginning-to-face-
bigotry-on-the-job-and-nobody-is-helping/
(Accessed 27th November, 2022).
29. Farooqui and Ahmad, “Communal Violence,
Mental Health and Their Correlates,” 2021.
30. Khanna, Renu, “Communal violence in
Gujarat, India: Impact of Sexual Violence and
Responsibilities of the Health Care System,”
Reproductive Health Matters 16, no. 31
(2008): 142-152.
32
livelihoods-islamophobia-hindu-groups
(accessed on November 26, 2022).
27. Jamil, Ghazala, “The Capitalist Logic of
Spatial Segregation: A Study of Muslims in
Delhi,” Economic and Political Weekly 49, no.
3 (January 2014): 52-58.
28. Naraharisetty, Rohitha, “Muslim Gig Workers
Are Beginning to Face Bigotry on the Job
— And Nobody Is Helping,” The Swaddle,
October 19, 2022, https://theswaddle.com/
muslim-gig-workers-are-beginning-to-face-
bigotry-on-the-job-and-nobody-is-helping/
(Accessed 27th November, 2022).
29. Farooqui and Ahmad, “Communal Violence,
Mental Health and Their Correlates,” 2021.
30. Khanna, Renu, “Communal violence in
Gujarat, India: Impact of Sexual Violence and
Responsibilities of the Health Care System,”
Reproductive Health Matters 16, no. 31
(2008): 142-152.
31. Viswambharan, Aswathy P, and Kumar Ravi
Priya, “Documentary analysis as a qualitative
methodology to explore disaster mental
health: Insights from analysing a documentary
on communal riots,” Qualitative Research 16,
no. 1 (2016): 43-59.
32. Jain, Rishabh, and Fateh Guram, “The
‘othering’ of Muslims is triggering mental
health issues in India,” TRT World, January
2022, https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/
the-othering-of-muslims-is-triggering-mental-
health-issues-in-india-53893 (accessed on
October 29, 2022).
33. Raman, Anugraha, “Mental healthcare in
India fails marginalised people,” The Times of
India, October 18, 2022, https://timesofindia.
indiatimes.com/blogs/developing-
contemporary-india/mental-healthcare-in-
india-fails-marginalised-people/ (accessed on
November 28, 2022).
34. In order to protect the identity of the interviewees
and the sensitive nature of the conversations,
we have changed all the names mentioned in
this report.
35. Kleinman, Das, and Lock, Social Suffering,
1997.
36. Bhat, 2022.
37. “The Myriad States of the Caste of Mind,”
Economic and Political Weekly 57, 35
(27 August, 2022), https://www.epw.in/
journal/2022/35/editors-desk/myriad-states-
caste-mind.html (Accessed 29th November,
2022)
38. Christophe Jaffrelot, 2021.
India, October 18, 2022, https://timesofindia.
indiatimes.com/blogs/developing-
contemporary-india/mental-healthcare-in-
india-fails-marginalised-people/ (accessed on
November 28, 2022).
34. In order to protect the identity of the interviewees
and the sensitive nature of the conversations,
we have changed all the names mentioned in
this report.
35. Kleinman, Das, and Lock, Social Suffering,
1997.
36. Bhat, 2022.
37. “The Myriad States of the Caste of Mind,”
Economic and Political Weekly 57, 35
(27 August, 2022), https://www.epw.in/
journal/2022/35/editors-desk/myriad-states-
caste-mind.html (Accessed 29th November,
2022)
38. Christophe Jaffrelot, 2021.
39. Express News Service, “One killed, 53 injured
as Muslims and tribals clash in Madhya
Pradesh village,” Indian Express, March 19,
2020, https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/
bhopal/one-killed-injured-muslims-tribals-
clash-madhya-pradesh-village-7827193/.
(Accessed 30th November, 2022)
40. Das, Mausumi, Oindrila De, and Zoya Khan,
“The Long shadow of the 2020 Delhi riots,”
The Indian Express, March 17, 2022, https://
indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/
the-long-shadow-of-the-2020-northeast-delhi-
riots-7821523/. (Accessed 30th November,
2022)
41. Das, Veena, Affliction: Health, Disease,
Poverty (New York: Fordham Univ Press,
2015).
42. “Trauma and Political Violence: Experts
Respond,” Political Violence at a 2022,
glance, September 23, 2021, https://
politicalviolenceataglance.org/2021/09/23/
trauma-and-political-violence-experts-
respond/. (Accessed 29th November, 2022)
43. Sarkar, Tanika, “Semiotics of terror: Muslim
children and women in Hindu Rashtra,”
Economic and Political Weekly (2002): 2872-
2876. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4412352
(Accessed on 25th November, 2022)
44. Iyer, Aishwarya, “‘The day my blood boils’:
How songs incited hate at a Navratri rally in
Rajasthan’s Karauli,” Scroll, April 11, 2022,
https://scroll.in/article/1021548/the-day-my-
blood-boils-how-songs-incited-hate-at-a-
navratri-rally-in-rajasthan-s-karauli. (Accessed
26th November, 2022)
Poverty (New York: Fordham Univ Press,
2015).
42. “Trauma and Political Violence: Experts
Respond,” Political Violence at a
glance, September 23, 2021, https://
politicalviolenceataglance.org/2021/09/23/
trauma-and-political-violence-experts-
respond/. (Accessed 29th November, 2022)
43. Sarkar, Tanika, “Semiotics of terror: Muslim
children and women in Hindu Rashtra,”
Economic and Political Weekly (2002): 2872-
2876. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4412352
(Accessed on 25th November, 2022)
44. Iyer, Aishwarya, “‘The day my blood boils’:
How songs incited hate at a Navratri rally in
Rajasthan’s Karauli,” Scroll, April 11, 2022,
https://scroll.in/article/1021548/the-day-my-
blood-boils-how-songs-incited-hate-at-a-
navratri-rally-in-rajasthan-s-karauli. (Accessed
26th November, 2022)
45. Nidha Parveen and Nada Nasreen,
“Gendered Islamophobia In India: The Phase
Of Targeted Hate Violence Against Muslim
Women,” in Religious Minorities In India
Report: Documenting Socio-Political Status
Of Religious Minorities In India (Council
on Minority Rights in India, November
2022), https://www.cmriusa.org/wp-content/
uploads/2022/11/CMRI-Religious-Minorities-
Report-2021.pdf. (Accessed 21st November,
2022)
46. Kavita Krishnan, “Caging Women Is Violence –
Not ‘Safety’ or ‘Protection’,” The Wire, January
17, 2021, https://thewire.in/women/freedom-
women-violence-safety-protection. (Accessed
28th November, 2022)
47. Rabia Shireen, “ ‘We Have Lost Our Peace,
Can’t Study’: Muslim Students Feel ‘Betrayed’
Over Hijab Ban,” The Wire, February 10,
https://thewire.in/rights/muslims-
students-karnataka-hijab-ban-ground-report.
(Accessed 23rd November, 2022)
48. Sajjad, Mohammad, “Caste, Community and
Crime: Explaining the Violence in Muzaffarpur,”
Economic and Political Weekly 50, no. 5
(January 2015): 12-15.
49. PTI, “Over 1800 NGOs’ FCRA licences
cancelled in 3 yrs: Government,” The Times
of India, July 26, 2022, https://timesofindia.
indiatimes.com/india/over-1800-ngos-fcra-
licences-cancelled-in-3-yrs-government
(accessed on November 30, 2022).
50. cover image / collage: https://www.theguardian.
com/world/2020/mar/01/india-delhi-after-
hindu-mob-riot-religious-hatred-nationalists,
https://www.shethepeople.tv/news/three-girls-
jamia-millia-protest/, https://www.orissapost.
com/gorakhpur-doctor-booked-for-instigating-
protests-in-aligarh-muslim-university/
33